Dillinger Is Dead (1969)

Recently, "Dillinger is Dead" has apparently been re-discovered...at least that's what the host on Turner Classic Movies said. I would have just have soon had it remain a lost film!The biggest reason I watched this film is because it stars Michel Piccoli--a very fine actor who appeared in many French and Italian films. I have enjoyed his work a lot...and this film is the first of his that I truly hated. There isn't a lot of plot to this one and it mostly consists of Piccoli doing a lot of strange and nonsensical puttering around his house late one night while his lover sleeps. He discovers a hidden gun and although you'd think this would introduce some important plot element, after cleaning it, oiling it and painting(?) it, he prances about his home doing bizarro things--such as playing home movies and kissing the ladies in the film as well as playing with his fingers and watching a bullfight. Ultimately, The film is the epitome of the art film. The camera-work is occasionally jerky and amateurish. The plot, such as it is, makes no real sense and the main character is just weird and seemingly pointless (sort of like the lead in Godard's "Pierre le Fou"). If your idea of fun is seeing a lot of weirdness interrupted occasionally by a bit of nudity, by all means watch the film. As for me, life is just too short and I cannot imagine most viewers (95-99% perhaps) enjoying the film in the least.

A well-off industrial designer, Glauco, comes back home and sees his wife who allegedly has a headache and rests in bed. She leaves him a cold dinner, lest Glauco should feel hungry. Nevertheless, Glauco chooses to prepare the meal on his own. While cooking, he discloses a gun wrapped in a newspaper which recounts events regarding a famous mobster Dillinger's demise… Whilst reading this paragraph, one is likely to scratch his head and reassure this is what the movie is genuinely about. This is no mistake – Dillinger is Dead is precisely a product of its time. A bold, weird and mesmerizingly original film which has more in common with existentialism and fantasy than Dillinger himself. The concept of merging reality with surrealism and transmuting it into an artistic manifestation is indubitably exquisite. Straightforwardly speaking, the story by Ferreri is an infant of sheer uniqueness and it stimulates one's senses. Despite the fact that the whole motion picture is virtually filmed solely in Glauco's apartment, Ferreri aptly lunges the plot and it consequently never drags or feels rushed. The characters existent in the flick sporadically encounter one another and the action generally revolves around Glauco. Neither does one get to know his past, nor his views on the outer world. Yet, his mental state is absolutely precise and visible inasmuch his soul is diaphanous owing to Ferreri's fantastic mise-en-scène which visualises Glauco's existential ennui by exposing his disparate acts in his home which serve totally nothing. The protagonist seems nearly a phantom creeping through ensuing chambers of his apartment. He desperately endeavours to do something, satisfy himself anyhow, still he is at a loss for options. His behaviour perpetuated on the celluloid consists of most probably his everyday activities. This enchantingly articulates the meaninglessness and pointlessness of his life. What is new in his life is the weapon wrapped in the mysterious newspaper which inscrutably appears in his apartment. Once he finds the gun, he gradually embarks on altering his life and this is the onset of his transformation which leads to the abrupt and outré denouement.Mario Vulpiani's cinematography captures the infertility of Glauco's actions in an eye-pleasing manner and it's occasionally ravishing and co-operates with the soundtrack by Teo Usuelli duly. The performance by Michel Piccoli is very good, resembling his appearances in Bunuel movies in which he plays analogous roles. His minimalistic attitude is very appropriate and renders the character plausible.While portraying existential ennui wasn't something ground-breaking and refreshing in 1969, what strikes in case of Dillinger is Dead is Ferreri's atypical execution of the material. Apart from being structurally quite precisely delineated and recounted, it's far from being a film reminiscent of Edward Munch's painting The Scream or Antonioni flicks. What one might behold here is a huge irony, enormous portions of dark humour and hilarious wickedness. Given that Ferreri was a leftist, it may be analysed as criticism of bourgeois class – filled with money, yet incapable of spending it on laudable aims or developing their interests since there are not such for them. Hence, the movie works well as a wicked depiction of pointlessness of human in modern society as well as a political and satirical manifesto. No matter how sophisticatedly one approaches Dillinger is Dead, it is a highly riveting piece of cinematographic extravaganza which ought to appeal to those seeking for something else and lovers of the sixties or art-house cinema, whereas all others should make allowances for the possibility that this slow-paced, somewhat plot less quirk might be emotionally insufficient and boring as well as possibly exasperating for some.

"Dilinger è morto" is an artistic performance,it represents the beginning of Ferreri abstract cinema, in everything personal. The everyone spirit voyeuristic here is more stimulated and the spectator is carried away with the actions of Glauco, the chief character. At the home beginning from his job of industrial designer, he finds only loneliness and boredom; infact his wife stuffes herself sleeping tablet; the maid, in her bedroom, dreams with eyes wide her italian folk singer idol; the dinner is on the table and it is cold maybe like Glauco's mood. But this time he reacts and decides to cook something of good and while is looking for necessary ingredients he finds a gun wrapped up a page of news paper dated 23 july of 1934, and bringing the killing of american gangster Dilinger news. This is the beginning of the end, or rather, of the end of this life. Ferreri is excellent in his cynic narrativity and he is able to make us laughing of the more tragic events.

You call this an experimental film...I call this... a trash movie. Sometimes boring, sometimes funny. Michel Piccoli acting like a dumb makes me laugh. You must see this movie. Marco Ferreri wasn't a good director but his clownish act wasn't so bad.